Skilled Truck Accident Attorneys

Establishing Liability In Commercial Trucking Accidents

A violation of trucking industry safety regulations can make it easier to prove negligence by a commercial driver or trucking company depending on the law of the jurisdiction where a plaintiff pursues their case. Where state or federal law permits, a trucking regulatory violation might constitute “negligence per se.” While the application of this principle will depend on applicable state or federal law, the violation of a trucking industry regulation that results in a trucking accident and causes injury can be enough to establish negligence by the truck driver or commercial carrier, particularly when breaking the law was a direct cause of a collision. Numerous categories of regulations might be relevant depending on your specific facts and circumstances, such as:

• Drug and alcohol prohibitions, restrictions, and mandatory chemical testing
• Hours of service (HOS) rules that limit driving sessions and on-duty non-driving time while imposing mandatory rest periods
• Rules governing maximum load capacity and securing of loads
• Weight and length limitations for various commercial vehicle configurations
• Mandatory inspections and maintenance requirements
• Requirements for equipping a commercial truck
• Standards imposed for pre-hiring employment investigations and screening
• Proper training and supervision of drivers
• Necessary record keeping regarding HOS, vehicle inspection/maintenance, etc.
• Rules regarding driver physical fitness

These cases also involve many specific issues that necessitate specialized knowledge and experience in litigating trucking collision injury claims, including the following:

• State and Federal Trucking Regulations: Our firm possesses the necessary legal knowledge and experience regarding state and federal trucking regulations and laws.
• Preservation of Evidence: Success in trucking cases often requires aggressive action to prevent the alteration or destruction of evidence. Prompt action often is required to present premature repair of damage to the vehicle or deletion of data recorded by the truck’s onboard data recorder. Our law firm routinely sends a notice to defendants in trucking accident cases to prevent the loss of key evidence. In appropriate cases, we retain the use of trucking accident reconstructionists to inspect the vehicles involved and accident scene.
• Multiple Defendants & Insurance Sources: When seeking the maximum recovery in a trucking accident case, a multitude of potentially responsible parties must be considered, including the trucking company, the commercial driver, the owner of the cab, the owner of the trailer, the shipper, and others depending on the facts. Each of these parties might have various degrees of fault and multiple sources of insurance coverage.
• Complex Fact Finding: The gathering of evidence in a trucking accident case can be complicated. The relevant evidence will depend on various factors, such as the potential basis of liability, the responsible parties, and more. For example, the information and facts to be gathered could include maintenance records, commercial truck logs, inspection records, past citations for safety violations and traffic laws, driver certifications, and driver employment and training records.
• Severe Injuries: Since trucking accidents have a high propensity to result in serious or even fatal injuries because of the massive weight and size of large commercial trucks, experience handling cases involving catastrophic injuries and wrongful death claims becomes important when pursuing many trucking cases.

Types of Financial Recovery that Could Be Available to You

Generally, a person injured in a collision with a large truck because of another party’s negligence can seek a monetary recovery (referred to as damages) for both tangible and intangible losses. Any recovery requires that a plaintiff provide proof of the value of the damages and a causal connection between the conduct of the defendant and the plaintiff’s injuries.

When we represent individuals injured by negligent commercial drivers and commercial carriers, we seek all forms of monetary compensation our clients are entitled to receive under applicable law and the circumstances of the case. Depending on the facts and applicable law, these types of damages can include:

• Medical expenses (past, present & future)
• Loss of earnings
• Decreased earning capacity
• Pain and suffering
• Diminished enjoyment of life experiences
• Mental distress
• Loss of consortium
• Punitive damages (depending on the applicable law as well as the egregiousness of the defendant’s conduct)
• Wrongful death damages

In the case of a tragic loss of a family member in an automobile accident caused by someone else’s negligence, our attorneys pursue wrongful death claims on behalf of our clients.

The rights of plaintiffs to pursue wrongful death claims, including the proper parties to bring a claim, are subject to the applicable law of a particular state, and the types of damages recovered can significantly vary from state-to-state as well.

For example, the types of damages or combination of damages some states allow for wrongful death claimants include the full economic and non-economic value of the life of the victim, loss of companionship, value of support and services, and/or punitive damages, to name a few. Often, families are also entitled to burial and funeral expenses, medical expenses incurred, and pain and suffering endured by the deceased victim.

However, even the proper party to bring such a claim (or multiple claims) can vary depending on the state where the accident occurred. If you lost a family member in a trucking accident caused by someone else’s negligence, contact us for a free consultation to learn about your legal rights and options. Let our attorneys help you navigate this difficult time, answer your questions, and let you know how we can help.

An exact prediction of the value of a trucking accident claim usually will not be possible at the outset of the case because many different variables can impact the amount of the recovery. As such, each individual claim is unique. Predicting the precise value of a given claim is generally not possible at the beginning of a case, but our attorneys are able to predict a range in case value once all important evidence has been acquired and assembled, we have learned the nature, extent, severity and prognosis of the injury, and evaluated the applicable law and strength of the evidence.

The amount of compensation an accident victim receives depends on numerous factors, including, by way of example only, the facts and circumstances of the incident, how strong the liability is, the strength of the applicable law and evidence, the venue or locality where a claim must be brought, and the likeability and credibility that witnesses would have to a jury. Additional factors would include the nature and extent of a client’s injuries, the costs of medical treatment – including past and future, impact on the quality of life, the extent of pain and suffering, and whether they are temporarily or permanently disabled